VFX For Days - v0.44 Out Now

Today's update is a pretty exciting one. We've got tons of fixes and changes, a brand new tutorial & probably best of all a whole host of new FX work that makes matches in ZONERS even more satisfying.

VFX

Every character now has brand new hit fx for all of their moves and a ton of moves have received additional animations like projectiles ending etc. These FX made in conjunction with Gabriel Lima have added a ton of impact and personality and finally remove some of the last match placeholder assets visually

New comic book style text effects appear alongside various actions in matches! These are exciting colourful additions that again add even more visual spectacle. I'll be allowing players to turn these off in a future update

These images genuinely don't do the new VFX justice or the breadth of the improvements. So you'll just have to jump in and see how they are!

New Tutorial

The Basic Tutorial has been completely redesigned and is way clearer and more in depth on all of the game's core systems and rules.

Before I didn't really explain the goal system or some of the details, and during testing I kept witnessing the same confusion and difficulty. I believe this was a big hurdle to people enjoying the game, and it felt kind of cheap compared to a lot of the rest of the package.

Across the whole game I've also introduced new control sprites for gamepad facebuttons that make the whole thing much clearer. I'm hoping the onboarding for the game is much smoother for people now :)

Other Stuff

There's also loads of other smaller stuff, like balancing and bug fixes. With the new FX the King boss match at the end of the higher cup difficulties is even crazier. That's if you're good enough to get there of course ;)

Well check out the full patch notes below for a full list of what's shaking in v0.44. We genuinely are starting to get there aren't we? Let's do this thing!

Love & Peace Paris

ZONERS v0.44 Patch Notes ADDITIONS Brand new melee and shot hit FX for every character, including King boss battle New mid hit melee FX in 3 flavours (slash, blunt and magic) New comic book style sound texts added to tons of match actions Updated/Removed/Added new to the Holofield text gfx (such as Block, Super, Hyper) Completely reimagined Basic tutorial that much more completely and clearly explains how the game works FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY Piro Hyper active period increased from 60 frames to 75 frames Ringressa shot now fires for its full duration but ends quicker when making contact with another player or ball Ringressa shot is now more accurate length and slightly stronger Ringressa shot has new effects at its end Ringressa shot should now be cleared if round ends whilst one is in the middle of firing Gluup projectile has destroy FX Gluup Daze animation was missing, has been readded Urnest projectile has new particle system attached Rhapsody Projectiles and Super have destroy FX Rhapsody Hyper shockwaves fixed issue where ball wouldn't be hit by last shockwave Rhapsody Hyper shockwaves travel 42% further Crabhammers bumpers and pieces now have hit and destroy fx Princess projectile now has destroy fx Dum-E Super now creates a cluster explosion effect for 60 frames where it stops and the life timer for each explosion is very slightly randomised making it more like a shotgun Dum-E Hyper has been changed so that rather than dashing forwards with the punch, they now throw the giant boxing glove punch ahead of them on their spring arm as a disjointed hitbox King Tennis projectile attack sprite updated King Tennis projectile no longer gets smaller during rally All King projectiles now have destroy FX King's Spear attack has been fixed so it collides with player again but also there's more time to react between it appearing and flying across the screen Fixed display of damage values to king when Hi-Res fonts are turned on in the options When deflecting projectiles the effected character will now skip to the end of their melee animation Stopped parries working on balls during match breaks (e.g during match start countdown) Changed Clash graphics to appear on top and not on the back holofield to make sure info can be seen Fixed Hologram House stage displaying in the wrong version when doing the tutorial. Fixed drawing of the goal points when using hi-res fonts Fixed drawing of aiming reticle when using KB+M controls during tutorials Edited the Melee & Projectile Spin Advanced Tutorials so you can no longer move or dash to make it clearer how to play Fixed issue with Clawcade bumpers not always "triggering" when ball bounces off them Goal shields now reset at the start of every round rather than wait for a timer MENUS Updated all instances where face button controls are displayed to show controller specific sprites (Nintendo, Xbox & Playstation) and not just generic unmarked diamond buttons Updated most holofield text fx with a new style Fixed audio ducking of character themes during cup dialogue emote sfx so it happens again Slightly brightened the blue text highlight that can appear in textboxes Fixed issue when quitting the cup in the middle of the King match battle and trying to do the training Fixed crash when setting a specific profile's automatic assist set ups in the profile options menu MISC Font for Hyper Move name displays changed to brand new one Hyper move portraits and names now display in instant replays too Fixed a bunch of crashes that happened during instant replays